SGX suspends trading in securities market due to technical glitch

Further update: According to a statement issued by SGX at about 4pm, the securities market not reopen at all today (14 July). It had earlier said that trading will resume at 4pm.

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Update: SGX remains suspended. The following is a statement by SGX explaining the temporary halt:

“Member reconciliation files are being generated and the securities market will not resume trading at 1400 hours. We will advise the market resumption time once member reconciliation is completed.”

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The Singapore Exchange (SGX) has temporarily ceased trading in its securities market at 11.38am today (Jul 14) after duplicate trade confirmation messages were generated. SGX in a statement published in its website said:

“The SGX securities market was put in adjust phase at 1138 hours due to duplicate trade confirmation messages being generated. No duplicate trades were executed and the market remained orderly. Message reconciliation is underway and we expect the market to resume trading at 1400 hours.”

An experienced trader speaking to Bloomberg suggested that the error might have happened because SGX changed the system and moved from a stock exchange floor to automated trading. He said that as long as SGX gets the system up and running before 2pm the disruption would be low.

This is not the first time trading has been halted at SGX. In 2014, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) reprimanded SGX for two trading disruptions which occurred a year earlier.

Steven Leung, executive director at UOB Kay Hian (Hong Kong) Ltd in speaking to Bloomberg said: “Hong Kong may be better…I don’t remember when Hong Kong had such a suspension because of technical issues.”